52 Twciity-sci'cutJi Annual Mcetitig 



without bankruptcy, is to expect to find a Klondike at either 

 end of a rainbow. 



Compare the results of this delusive and fallacious scheme 

 of protection with the bona fide protection afforded through 

 open fishing and protected environment for the ova. By this 

 plan a single spawning of the whitefish, 30,000 ova, will pro- 

 duce 15,000 to 27,000 young fish, varying according to circum- 

 stances. Allowing that but one in three of the breeders not 

 spawned out when caught is in spawning condition, and still 

 the closed season natural spawning plan of producing white- 

 fish is overwhelmingly outclassed. 



But, instead of eagerly seizing the only brief opportunity 

 that is allowed to thus create where nature destroys and save 

 where nature wastes, the law says no, we will blindly turn from 

 this golden opportunity whereby we may not only recoup for the 

 fish removed during this period, but also for those taken at other 

 times, when recompense is impossible. 



Masquerading and deceiving, through the seductive influence 

 of the word "protection," the closed season law commits the 

 unpardonable folly of denying the opportunity to intervene and 

 rescue and vitalize millions on millions of germs otherwise 

 doomed to certain destruction. To thus protect by destroying 

 is to add by subtracting and multiply by dividing. 



Although the hatching percentage of brook trout in nature 

 is undoubtedly much higher than that of the lake trout and 

 whitefish, yet no better illustration of the pitiful inadequacy of 

 natural propagation need be cited than the trout streams of 

 Michigan. Hundreds of non-indigenous streams were quickly 

 stocked through the agency of protected' propagation. Fishing 

 has been limited to hook and line for a season of four months, 

 alternating with a period of eight months' rest. Clearly this 

 was a most favorable opportunity for unaided nature to prove 

 her ability to stand up against nature's losses and the inroads 

 of man ; in short, for the closed season propaganda to vindicate 

 itself. Surely a closed spawning season should be more than 

 able to stand the strain of four months' angling if it is expected 

 that the same remedy will sustain the wholesale methods of 

 commercial fishing. But we find that in the more accessible 

 streams the stock soon dwindles, fishing grows poorer, and 

 periodical contributions from the hatcheries, to reinforce na- 

 ture's feeble efforts, are necessary. 



If the natural spawning for which closed season advocates 

 so plausibly contend be the unfailing panacea for toning up 



